Last month, SEIU Local 775
President David Rolf (a.k.a. Andy Stern’s “Mini-Me”) signed an open
letter with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and venture capitalist Nick
Hanauer.

The letter calls on “business, labor and government in Washington
state to join us” in an effort to push state legislation that reportedly would
consign gig workers to a second-class status as independent contractors without
the right to overtime pay, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, Social
Security, meal and rest breaks, etc.

For years, Uber drivers and other
gig-economy workers have been fighting to force tech companies to treat them as
regular employees. They’ve filed class-action action lawsuits seeking millions
of dollars in back pay. And in Seattle, Uber drivers and Teamsters Local 117
successfully passed a law allowing Uber drivers to unionize.

Uber executives have been aggressively
fighting workers’ organizing efforts in the courts as well as by launching an anti-union
campaign in Seattle consisting of TV ads, online ads, text and e-mail
blasts to drivers, anti-union meetings, and even an anti-union podcast.

And, in case workers are successful,
Uber is also trying to do an end-run around workers’ efforts by trying to pass state
laws that would permanently legislate gig workers into “independent contractor”
status and create a second tier of so-called “portable benefits” for them.

That’s where Stern and Rolf come
into the story.

In 2016, the tech companies hired Andy
Stern as a lobbyist to help them try to pass such a bill in the New York
legislature. Fortunately, that effort stalled due to opposition.

Following their failure in New
York, the tech companies are now trying their luck in Washington State… with
the help of David Rolf and Andy Stern. According to Uber’s
website:

Last year, Uber approached David Rolf with SEIU 775 and entrepreneur Nick
Hanauer about working together on the creation of a portable benefits system in
Washington state… Following several productive discussions, we developed a
joint letter calling on business, labor, and government to work together to
address this important problem.

On January 23, 2018, Uber published
a
letter signed by Uber’s CEO, SEIU’s Rolf, and the venture capitalist. At
the top of the letter is Uber’s logo alongside SEIU’s.

So, how are people responding to
Rolf’s so-called “innovative” deal with Uber?

In fact, Rolf has even been
criticized by an official inside his own union, according to Bloomberg:

“This is just a facelift by Uber to be able to look like they actually
care about the people who they hire for the services they provide,” said Hector
Figueroa, who is president of SEIU’s East Coast property services affiliate and
serves with Rolf on the international union’s executive board. “I just cannot
comprehend how today, as a labor leader, I would be encouraging the spread of
‘independent’ work.”

Interesting, right?

Why is Rolf’s help so important to
Uber?

First, Rolf’s union is one of the
largest in Washington state and he's developed lots of relationships with
politicians. If Uber is successful in passing its legislation in one state, it
can then push similar legislation nationally, says Bloomberg’s Eidelson.

Uber hopes working with Rolf and Hanauer to pass legislation in
Washington will change the national conversation on these issues, showing how
benefits can be decoupled from traditional employee-employer status, and
opening a less adversarial phase in the debate over how laws should treat
gig-economy workers, a spokesperson said.

The trio, and whichever additional allies they can muster, will try to
get a first-of-its-kind system passed into law in Washington state, which is
Rolf and Hanauer’s home as well as one of the few places where Democrats have
unified control of government and legislation on the issue is already being
debated.

While the letter is light on details, the spokesperson said Uber wants to
gather additional stakeholders and formulate a proposal that could be introduced
in next year’s legislative session. Among the things a bill should do, the
spokesperson said, is make clear that workers like Uber drivers are not
employees.

Uber drivers protesting low pay

Meanwhile, Stern is working other
channels to help Uber and tech companies permanently relegate their workers to independent-contractor
status.

In December 2016, Stern
co-authored a proposal with Eli Lehrer (President of the right-wing
“R Street Institute” in Washington DC) calling on the
Republican-controlled U.S. Congress and White House to grant “waivers” to
states to allow them to escape the requirements of federal labor laws. The waivers would be
a boon to tech companies, which Stern calls “sharing-economy companies” with “innovative
business models.”

Friday, February 16, 2018

In another sign of
trouble, SEIU-UHW is reportedly facing demands for takeaways from Dignity
Health during contract negotiations that began last month. The current
contract, which is set to expire April 30, covers 15,000 workers and is
SEIU-UHW’s second largest contract after Kaiser Permanente.

According to
SEIU-UHW, Dignity wants to eliminate SEIU-UHW members’ access to fully
employer-paid family health insurance, which has been a standard benefit at
unionized California hospitals since the 1970s. Instead, management wants SEIU-UHW
members to pay $125 per month to get health insurance for a spouse, and $175
per month for a spouse and children. Only “employee-only” coverage would be
free to workers.

The demands spell
trouble for Dave Regan.

SEIU-UHW members are
already reportedly facing takeaways from Kaiser, which is the union’s largest
employer. According to Regan, Kaiser
wants 10%-20% cuts to the wage scales for future hires in California’s
Central Valley, stretching from Sacramento to Fresno. Kaiser says it hasn’t
begun negotiations with SEIU-UHW and has not yet put any proposals on the
table.

So... in 2018, Regan
will be in defensive bargaining covering more than 70% of the union’s
membership even though both Kaiser and Dignity are flush with profits.

What’s going on?

The two companies apparently
see Regan as vulnerable.

And Regan is vulnerable. But he can only blame
himself for SEIU-UHW’s current problems. Why?

Because he laid the
groundwork for the cuts by negotiating similar benefit cuts and wage freezes
with other hospital companies. “We want the same cuts you gave to the other companies,” the execs at Dignity and Kaiser seemed to be telling Regan.

Soon after
parachuting into California in 2009, Regan quickly began slashing workers’
long-established contract standards. Alameda Hospital was the first hospital
where Regan agreed to eliminate SEIU-UHW members’ fully employer-paid family
health benefits. Instead of paying $0 for family health coverage, Regan
required SEIU-UHW members to pay $170 per month to get coverage for their
children. Once the ink was dry on Dave’s signature at the bottom of the
contract, Alameda Hospital executive Kerry Easthope told the San Jose Mercury News that Regan’s cuts
were “a groundbreaking concession.” (Michele Ellso, “Alameda
Hospital employees to get pay raise,“ San
Jose Mercury News, 04/30/2009)

Next, Regan
negotiated similar cuts to health insurance with entire hospital chains like the
Daughters of Charity Healthcare System. In 2012, Regan used ramrod
ratification votes to force massive concessions down the throats of
thousands of thousands of Daughters of Charity workers. Regan tossed their fully
employer-paid family health coverage in the trash can. Instead, SEIU-UHW
members were
forced to pay 25% of the monthly health insurance premiums -- or hundreds
of dollars a month.

Regan also eliminated
workers’ defined-benefit pension plan (he replaced it with a 401k plan),
implemented an invasive corporate wellness program, and allowed the company to
double workers’ out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions, doctors visits and other
healthcare procedures.

We wanted to let you know that the leadership of SEIU-UHW has notified
Kaiser Permanente that the union has withdrawn its proposed ballot initiative
that would have affected Kaiser Permanente if it became law.

We acknowledge the union’s decision to set aside the ballot initiative.
There is more work to be done in reaffirming our Labor Management Partnership,
and recommitting to our core principles of partnership, and that work is
underway.

One day before the
announcement, Regan launched a hastily choreographed maneuver aimed at trying
to convince SEIU-UHW’s members that he’s not weak and isn’t in fact
scurrying away from a fight with Kaiser with his tail between his legs.

With
much chest-pumping, Regan yesterday
announced that SEIU-UHW will hold “protests” at 32 Kaiser hospitals between
February 14 and March 9. It’s unclear what the “protests” will be.

What’s behind Regan’s
“protest” announcement?

Since last summer,
Regan has been telling SEIU-UHW members that his ballot
initiative is the secret weapon that’ll prevent Kaiser from implementing
cuts to SEIU-UHW members’ wage scales for future hires in California’s Central
Valley. Now that Regan is dropping the ballot initiative, workers will
inevitably ask: “Did Dave just cave into the boss? Did he just throw us under
the bus? If we no longer have a ballot initiative, then what’s the plan?”

Will workers actually
buy Regan’s damage-control maneuver? It remains to be seen.

Better yet… does
Regan actually have a “Plan B” to confront Kaiser’s demand for wage cuts?

Lastly, will Regan ever have a successful ballot initiative... which he's spent tens of millions of union members' dues money on, according to Politico?

What's next?

It appears that Regan
wants to rejoin the partnership unions’ 2018 national bargaining process, which
is scheduled to begin next month. However, Regan and SEIU-UHW’s members will join
the negotiations with a much diminished stature after Regan torched relationships with other partnership unions and burned a bunch of bridges with his
former pals at Kaiser. For example, for months Regan has demanded that the
other partnership unions allow him to take control of the national bargaining,
which was strongly resisted by the unions.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

According to an
internal source, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan will soon withdraw the
California ballot initiative he recently
filed against Kaiser Permanente.

There’s no official
confirmation of the withdrawal yet, but Tasty’s internal sources say
it’s coming.

Last week, top officials
from the labor-management partnership unions convened
in Washington DC for a closed-door meeting with Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson.

At a pre-meeting, some union leaders reportedly discussed the idea of tossing
SEIU-UHW out of the labor-management partnership. Kaiser earlier barred
SEIU-UHW from participating in the partnership’s 2018 national bargaining.

Meanwhile, last week
Kaiser mounted a direct-mail
campaign targeting SEIU-UHW’s members with news that Regan’s initiative --
which could place a cap Kaiser’s future revenues -- would undermine the HMO’s
ability to fund SEIU-UHW members’ pensions and other benefits.

Regan’s withdrawal of
the initiative is not a shocker. After all, Regan has a track record of
committing a staggering series of f*uck-ups when it comes to is ballot
initiatives.

In 2016, Regan was
forced to withdraw an Arizona ballot initiative targeting the hospital
industry after hiring paid circulators who collected 281,000 signatures from voters.
Why? Regan apparently forgot to make sure the signature-gatherers were legally
qualified to collect signatures. Whoops!

In each withdrawal,
Regan had already spent millions of SEIU-UHW members’ funds on the failed
efforts.

On Monday, Politico’s Victoria Colliver also noted
Regan’s record of misfiring on his million-dollar ballot initiatives.

SEIU-UHW has a history of filing ballot measures that would affect
organizations whose workers it represents, or wants to. Most of them never
actually get voted on: The union has often dropped them partway through the
arduous ballot-qualification process…

The referendum strategy doesn't come cheap. It costs money to file
measures, pay people to gather signatures, hire lawyers to review language and
fend off challenges, and foot the bill for advertising and other expenses
associated with mounting what is basically a political campaign.

The union has spent $21.2 million on ballot measures in California since
the 2012 election cycle…

And, says Politico, he’s about to dip even deeper
into the SEIU-UHW’s coffers.

This year, Regan has
filed 10 initiatives for the November 2018 ballot -- “more referendums than in
the past six years combined.” Yesterday, SEIU-UHW announced it’ll spend $3.5
million on advertising this year for just one of its 10 initiatives.

What does SEIU-UHW have
to show for Regan’s multi-million dollar ballot-initiative bonanza?

Not much, says Politico.

Not a single one of its initiatives in recent years has taken effect. Of
the seven statewide measures filed between 2012 and 2016, five were dropped
before submitting signatures to qualify… [A sixth] was pulled before voting
when an arbitrator
ruled it violated an earlier agreement between SEIU-UHW and the hospitals.

In a rare local victory, Santa Clara County voters in 2012 approved a
salary cap at El Camino Hospital — but a judge later ruled the initiative
process did not apply to health care districts.

If Regan is so
fascinated with ballot initiatives, shouldn’t he be running a political consulting
firm instead of a labor union?

So why is Regan
pouring tens of millions of dollars of SEIU-UHW’s budget into ballot measures?

First, it keeps all
of the power in his hands and those of his consultants and lawyers.

And it keeps the
union’s members demobilized. No need to create strong shopfloor organization at
Kaiser
Permanente to fight concessionary bargaining when, according to Dave, you
can simply file a ballot initiative. A demobilized membership means no threat to Dave's hold on power.

Thirdly, it lets
Regan tell the membership he actually has some sort of plan to win. “Ballot
initiatives – the new multi-million dollar miracle pill to solve all our
problems!”

Of course, Regan’s
ballot initiative strategy has another massive weakness. Laws can change. At
some point soon, Tasty predicts the corporations will pass laws outlawing Regan’s
use of California’s voter-initiated ballot measure system as a tool for
exerting leverage on companies.

On Monday, Kaiser
Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson reportedly met with top officials from the
partnership unions, known as the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.

Who was in the room?

The presidents of many
of the international unions that participate in the partnership including the AFT’s
Randi Weingarten and AFSCME’s Lee Saunders.

SEIU’s Mary
Kay Henry reportedly attended a pre-meeting, but then ducked out of the
room before the Kaiser CEO showed up. It looks like Mary
Kay Henry didn’t want to face Tyson, who says SEIU-UHW’s ballot
initiative would jeopardize the future financial stability of the HMO.

Meanwhile, Kaiser took
another shot at Regan this week.

The HMO mailed a
two-page letter to the homes of tens of thousands of SEIU-UHW members with the
heading, “We need your help securing our future together: Help stop an attack
on Kaiser Permanente.” The letter calls on the union’s members to contact Regan
and tell him to “stop putting our future at risk.” Tasty guesses this is one piece
of what’ll likely be a campaign to turn the hearts and minds of SEIU-UHW
members against their erratic president.

Regan, after parachuting
into California into 2009, surgically attached himself to the hips of Kaiser’s
execs… even working with them to try to break strikes by NUHW and the California
Nurses Association. So it’s not hard to understand why Regan’s recent attack
on Kaiser -- which caused Kaiser execs to
block SEIU-UHW from participating in upcoming national bargaining -- is
causing SEIU-UHW’s members to scratch their heads.

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